The Fulcrum
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Pyrrhic Victory
Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun:What will become of Fallujah after the current battle is done?
A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.
A Pyrrhic victory is so called after the Greek king Pyrrhus, who, after suffering heavy losses in defeating the Romans in 279 B.C., said to those sent to congratulate him, "Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone."
If you've seen the pictures, you know that in many parts of the city little remains but rubble. There is no electricity, any water or sewage service there was is now disabled, there is no phone service and the streets are too torn up even for bicycles. Apartment complexes, houses, stores and mosques are pockmarked with bullet holes, have gaping holes from tank rounds and RPGs or are completely demolished by mortars, artillery and bombs.
Because BushCo. telegraphed this move and then postponed it until after the US elections, the insurgents mostly melted away leaving a rearguard contingent to tie up our forces and moved on to other areas in Iraq to cause additional troubles. This was so effective that not only are the main US forces still trying to "mop up" the remaining insurgents in Fallujah, but an entire battalion of troops that were to contribute to the cordon around the city had to be sent to a nearby town after insurgents there overran the police stations making off with uniforms and more weapons.
So not only did we not kill or capture the main force of insurgents or any of their leaders, we've destroyed a city in the process.
What will the inhabitants of Fallujah think when they return? The insurgents will come back as soon as Operation Phantom Fury ends, along with the remaining residents. And they will play on the fears and emotions of those residents, coming back to ruined and destroyed homes and businesses. They and the imams will speak of the destruction wrought by our soldiers. They will tell stories of the desecration of the mosques, or the wanton killing of women and children, of the bombs falling indiscriminately from the sky; and true or not, the people will believe them.
And those young men who might have been more interested in their jobs or their schooling before will not have a place to work or study. Their families will not have a place to live or work. And those young men will join forces with the insurgents. And where there were 5,000 there will now be 7,000 or 10,000.
As our soldiers move from town to town, at the direction of the generals who get their marching orders from Bush's neocon cabal, they will leave a path of destruction in their wake. It's what they are trained to do and they do it better than any army on earth ever did. And as happened in the jungles of another third world country thousands of miles away and three generations ago, they will discover truths bought so dearly then: you really can't "win hearts and minds" by killing people, you can't save a village by destroying it, and in an insurgency you only control the ground you are standing on.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Tianenman Square, CA
Or as John at AMERICABlog put it last night:
Back to John at AMERICABlog who says it with all the outrage we should all feel about this:
"They deployed two fucking TANKS to counter an anti-war protest in LA"Several excuses have been floated around for why these tanks just happened to show up at a peaceful anti-war protest, including that they "got lost." If these were military tanks, I can tell you that no goddamn unit in the country would have tankers out joy-riding in the streets and become lost - coincidentally - near a protest. It just does not happen. If they were police tanks, and LA does have vehicles very much like tanks, you can bet they weren't just out for an evening jaunt; these things are expensive to run and they don't get lost either.
Back to John at AMERICABlog who says it with all the outrage we should all feel about this:
I am absolutely speechless. We look like China. We look like the Soviet Union. They just sent two tanks to counter a peaceful protest in the second largest city of America. Good God. And where is the media coverage? They just sent TANKS to counter peaceful protesters. That kind of an outrageous challenge to the protesters could have easily sparked violence.I second his call for action.
People, please, contact your local media, call any reporters you know, tell them about this. This is a huge story. This is absolutely scary shit. Sending tanks to confront peaceful protesters in an American city in 2004. Who the fuck are we anymore?
It's Time for the 'Q' Word Again
It's been a while, what with the elections, several days of despair and several more to recover. But it's that time again. Time to break out "Quagmire." Again.
Remember all those high explosives that weren't secured during the initial invasion of Iraq? Very nasty stuff and it was likely distributed to the insurgents around Iraq and used to create the many IEDs that have killed and injured our soldiers and many Iraqis. Then there was the story early this week that, among many other weapons that were not secured during the invasion, a couple thousand portable surface-to-air missiles went missing.
Once again those mistakes, that lack of detailed planning by BushCo. are coming back around to bite our soldiers in the ass.
Perhaps it's time to resurrect a Google Bomb from earlier in this quagmire: Miserable Failure.
Remember all those high explosives that weren't secured during the initial invasion of Iraq? Very nasty stuff and it was likely distributed to the insurgents around Iraq and used to create the many IEDs that have killed and injured our soldiers and many Iraqis. Then there was the story early this week that, among many other weapons that were not secured during the invasion, a couple thousand portable surface-to-air missiles went missing.
Once again those mistakes, that lack of detailed planning by BushCo. are coming back around to bite our soldiers in the ass.
A car bomb exploded near a police patrol in busy central Baghdad on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding 20, police said.And then there's this:
A police source said the blast missed a convoy of suburban cars of the kind used by foreign security contractors, which had just passed through the commercial Saadoun Street district.
Two U.S. helicopters were shot down near Fallujah on Thursday as fighting in the insurgent stronghold continued.There are no details on what was used to shoot down the helicopters, it could have been the missing missiles or just "regular" bullets. And the car bomb could have been fashioned from many things. But the fact that the explosives and the missiles are out there only heightens the danger to the soldiers and pilots.
U.S. soldiers search for insurgents in Fallujah. Military officials said the Super Cobra helicopters were shot down in separate incidents and the crew members have been rescued.
Perhaps it's time to resurrect a Google Bomb from earlier in this quagmire: Miserable Failure.
Arafat Dead; Ashcroft Takes Credit
Not really. That is, Yassir Arafat is dead, but Ashcroft didn't take credit. Although given his resignation statement - see the post below - he probably will before the week is out.
This is one of those situations that's going to put Bush to the test. For the past four years he's done nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, claiming that Arafat was a terrorist and an obstruction to the process. Well, Mr. Mandate, the obstruction is gone; time to get off your ass. Will we see any constructive overtures from the White House now, or will it be "more of the same?"
I have a feeling that Bush is going to run headlong into a lot of situations during the coming four years (fates help us...) that are going to require him to walk the big talk he mumbled and fumbled during the campaign. He can claim that his first term was hampered by 9/11 and obstructionist Democrats in Congress - it wouldn't be true, but he has and will continue to make that claim - but no more. He owns every failure, every missed opportunity, every crisis, everything.
The next four years have the potential to be one, long, never-ending train wreck for Bush: horrible to see, but impossible to look away from.
This is one of those situations that's going to put Bush to the test. For the past four years he's done nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, claiming that Arafat was a terrorist and an obstruction to the process. Well, Mr. Mandate, the obstruction is gone; time to get off your ass. Will we see any constructive overtures from the White House now, or will it be "more of the same?"
I have a feeling that Bush is going to run headlong into a lot of situations during the coming four years (fates help us...) that are going to require him to walk the big talk he mumbled and fumbled during the campaign. He can claim that his first term was hampered by 9/11 and obstructionist Democrats in Congress - it wouldn't be true, but he has and will continue to make that claim - but no more. He owns every failure, every missed opportunity, every crisis, everything.
The next four years have the potential to be one, long, never-ending train wreck for Bush: horrible to see, but impossible to look away from.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
When Is The Victory Party?
Did I miss the announcement that the Terrorism Threat Level had been changed to "green?" I didn't catch all the news this morning, maybe I missed the schedule for the New York City "Victory Over Terrorism" ticker-tape parade. Shouldn't there be fireworks and bells pealing?
"Nurse Ratched, calling Nurse Ratched."
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."WTF is he talking about? If he believes this bullshit, then it's way past time he retired. In fact, he should be retired to the closest hospital with a padded room.
John Ashcroft, November 9, 2004
"Nurse Ratched, calling Nurse Ratched."
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
The War Prayer
Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain - may have been the most intelligent, most prescient writer in American history. Today, with stories of the attack on Fallujah in all the news outlets and the attendant stories of our soldiers pausing in prayer before entering the battlefield, and knowing that it was the so-called "moral issues" voter who put the war mongering empty flight suit back in charge, it's time to revisit one of Twain's most amazing works.
You can read the whole thing here, but the following is so apropos:
You can read the whole thing here, but the following is so apropos:
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
What Goes Around, Comes Around
Dear World, We're So Sorry...
Check out the photos of some of the other 55+ million who didn't vote for the empty flight suit and who are apologizing to the rest of the world. Then get out your digital camera, get out a pen and some paper and add your face to the gallery at Sorry Everybody.
Go.
Now.
P.S. Thanks to Pissed Off Patricia at BlondeSense for the link.
Go.
Now.
P.S. Thanks to Pissed Off Patricia at BlondeSense for the link.
An Idea I Can Get Behind
Check out "Turn Your Back On Bush." This group's idea is simple, but potentially very powerful:
On January 20th, 2005, we're calling for a new kind of action. The Bush administration has been successful at keeping protesters away from major events in the last few years by closing off areas around events and using questionable legal strategies to outlaw public dissent. We can use these obstacles to develop new tactics. On Inauguration day, we don't need banners, we don't need signs, we don't need puppets, we just need people.Go check out their website; for now it's just a single page, and pass on the word. Blog about it, put it in your sidebar, send an e-mail. Even if you can't go to the inauguration, do your part to get this to someone who can.
We're calling on people to attend inauguration without protest signs, shirts or stickers. Once through security and at the procession, at a given signal, we'll all turn our backs on Bush's motorcade and continue through his speech and swearing in. A simple, clear and coherent message.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Justice Department Spin on GITMO
This administration hasn't found anything it can't spin. Today a federal judge said that prisoners of the "Never-ending War on Terror" are due the same legal protections as combatants captured on any other field of battle.
But what does the Justice Department say?
This is yet another reason this administration should not be trusted with either the war on terror or with our civil liberties.
But what does the Justice Department say?
He said the president properly determined that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to al Qaeda members. "The judge has put terrorism on the same legal footing as legitimate methods of waging war," Corallo said in a statement.No, you idiot, it means that the same standards of conduct applies to us regardless of how we capture our prisoners.
This is yet another reason this administration should not be trusted with either the war on terror or with our civil liberties.
A Fundamental Disagreement
A group that we are all going to have to come to grips with - and soon - are fundamentalist christians who have taken over the far right wing of the Republican party. One of the questions that will have to be answered over the next several years is whether or not fundamentalists can be considered - in even the broadest definition of the word - rational. How that question is answered will determine the way in which we must deal with them.
Don't expect to see or hear any reality based discussion of this question in the media or in any public forum by representatives of the major parties.
But here is the question in its stripped-down form:
So what do you call someone who ignores all evidence and persists in believing and promulgating outdated, obviously false or deluded world views? Rational? I don't think so. And yet the Republican party panders to this group, using them for their votes by appealing to their baser prejudices to drive them to the polls - in many cases against their own interests. Democrats have been only slightly better; witness all the "god talk" during the latter part of the presidential campaign.
Where should this discussion go from here? There are bits of it all around the blogosphere, but nobody has any solid ideas about how to raise this subject with the rest of the country. My formulation of it here is very rough... Outright bashing of the fundamentalists for their beliefs, regardless of how out of the mainstream of religious thought, will only alienate other believers. Appealing to them only makes us more like Republicans and is anathema to true progressive ideas. This will be a subject much debated - quietly in public, loudly in the blogosphere - for the next four years, at least.
Readers; any ideas?
Don't expect to see or hear any reality based discussion of this question in the media or in any public forum by representatives of the major parties.
But here is the question in its stripped-down form:
Can a group of people who overwhelmingly believe in the "virgin birth" and the coming "rapture" but are purposely blind to the irrefutable evidence of evolution be considered rational?Notice the way that I've worded that question. I didn't say that they don't "believe" in evolution. Belief has nothing to do with evolution. It is a theory with incredibly broad explanatory power in biology, geology, medicine, epidemiology and other fields. It is also well supported by evidence gleaned from these fields. But belief - the kind of belief that results from faith - has no power to explicate evolution or the world. Fundamentalists are the flat-earthers of our day and are exactly analogous to fundamentalist Muslims in their hatred of modernity and progressivism.
So what do you call someone who ignores all evidence and persists in believing and promulgating outdated, obviously false or deluded world views? Rational? I don't think so. And yet the Republican party panders to this group, using them for their votes by appealing to their baser prejudices to drive them to the polls - in many cases against their own interests. Democrats have been only slightly better; witness all the "god talk" during the latter part of the presidential campaign.
Where should this discussion go from here? There are bits of it all around the blogosphere, but nobody has any solid ideas about how to raise this subject with the rest of the country. My formulation of it here is very rough... Outright bashing of the fundamentalists for their beliefs, regardless of how out of the mainstream of religious thought, will only alienate other believers. Appealing to them only makes us more like Republicans and is anathema to true progressive ideas. This will be a subject much debated - quietly in public, loudly in the blogosphere - for the next four years, at least.
Readers; any ideas?
Bark Bark, Woof Woof
Today marks the first anniversary of a wonderful voice in the blogosphere. If you haven't been reading Mustang Bobby this year, you've missed out on some great writing, a biting - but dry - wit and a perspective on events you might not get anywhere else.
Head on over to Bark Bark, Woof Woof and wish Mustang Bobby a happy day!
Head on over to Bark Bark, Woof Woof and wish Mustang Bobby a happy day!
Entering Fallujah
It's difficult to write about what should be done in Fallujah; considering that we likely shouldn't even be in Iraq, the upcoming battle is going to leave too many dead; Americans and Iraqis. But our soldiers are there and the civilians have declared that Fallujah must be cleared of "insurgents." So the attack is on.
Once they are in the maze of building inside Fallujah, they will have to fight as I described in this post, below. But just getting into the city will be no mean feat, depending on the amount of damage that the US is willing to inflict on the city. Because Fallujah has basically been a no-go zone for American troops, they will have to clear the roads and alleyways of IEDs they may not be able to see. As they move along the main approaches to the city, they will have to secure the bridges and roads so that follow-on troops and supplies do not have to re-clear the same terrain.
Usually, reconnaissance units are assigned to move ahead and to the flanks of the main units on the move as well as securing the lines of communications behind. But with only about 10,000 troops at their disposal, there may not be enough troops to not only fight their way into the city, but to secure their flanks and rear. Each move along the way, some troops must be left behind to secure key areas and choke points. All the while, insurgents in the city have the "high ground" for observing their movements and to fire on them.
US forces will have plenty of technology on their side, and hopefully they will use it to full effect. This would included aerial manned and unmanned observation vehicles, long range optics, laser range finders, night vision systems and anti-battery radar for pinpointing enemy mortar positions. The problem becomes minimizing "collateral damage." And with more than 100,000 Iraqis potentially still in the city, this will not be easy.
This battle has the potential to be a turning point in our occupation of Iraq. If it goes well - for us, that is - it may temporarily result in fewer insurgent operations. If it goes poorly - that is, we could still win the battle but devastate the city and cause massive civilian casualties - we could spark not only a general uprising against US and Iraqi forces, but potentially unite the Sunni and Shi'a as never before.
The next several days will tell...
Once they are in the maze of building inside Fallujah, they will have to fight as I described in this post, below. But just getting into the city will be no mean feat, depending on the amount of damage that the US is willing to inflict on the city. Because Fallujah has basically been a no-go zone for American troops, they will have to clear the roads and alleyways of IEDs they may not be able to see. As they move along the main approaches to the city, they will have to secure the bridges and roads so that follow-on troops and supplies do not have to re-clear the same terrain.
Usually, reconnaissance units are assigned to move ahead and to the flanks of the main units on the move as well as securing the lines of communications behind. But with only about 10,000 troops at their disposal, there may not be enough troops to not only fight their way into the city, but to secure their flanks and rear. Each move along the way, some troops must be left behind to secure key areas and choke points. All the while, insurgents in the city have the "high ground" for observing their movements and to fire on them.
US forces will have plenty of technology on their side, and hopefully they will use it to full effect. This would included aerial manned and unmanned observation vehicles, long range optics, laser range finders, night vision systems and anti-battery radar for pinpointing enemy mortar positions. The problem becomes minimizing "collateral damage." And with more than 100,000 Iraqis potentially still in the city, this will not be easy.
This battle has the potential to be a turning point in our occupation of Iraq. If it goes well - for us, that is - it may temporarily result in fewer insurgent operations. If it goes poorly - that is, we could still win the battle but devastate the city and cause massive civilian casualties - we could spark not only a general uprising against US and Iraqi forces, but potentially unite the Sunni and Shi'a as never before.
The next several days will tell...
The Bush Economy
Expect to see more news like this now that the election is over and budget offices around the capitol are no longer worried about bad news affecting BushCo.'s reelection efforts. From this morning's Wall Street Journal (subscription):
Military spending remained the fastest-growing component of the U.S. budget in fiscal year 2004, but the rate slowed somewhat, according to the Congressional Budget Office.And although government receipts from taxes were up, those increases were outstripped by spending. Corporate tax receipts grew during the period as well, but in part because of some legal delays in spending and the arcane accounting rules used. But they were still off from the years prior to Bush's selection in 2000. Any guesses why?
The CBO said defense spending grew at an annual average rate of 15% in 2002 and 2003 as the military launched operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Overall, "defense outlays in 2004 were 55% higher than in 2000," the CBO said in a new report detailing aspects of the previously reported $413 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30.
Yet despite the sharp increase in those receipts in 2004, they were still about 9% below their peak in 2000, in large part because of the tax incentives for business investment enacted in 2002 and 2003," the CBO added.During the next four years emboldened by his new "mandate," we can expect to see the economy continue in exactly this manner, tilted towards military spending and giveaways to corporations and big earners who bankrolled Bush's campaign. The rest of the economy, especially social programs and anything that might benefit the poor or lower-middle class will get short shrift. Someone should really keep track of the promises Bush made in his campaign to just those groups and tick them off as they fall by the wayside in favor of stroking the rich and their corporations.
Aurora and Snow
Last night the Aurora Borealis were incredibly bright. Reds, Greens and Blues spread from the northern horizon clear to zenith. Then the clouds came in from the north and blocked them out. By the time we woke up this morning, those clouds had dumped an inch of snow on us.
I suppose that means that winter really is here.
Damn.
